Lost Topic: Bacteriophages

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I'd like to bring up this topic once again since all the other threads on this are 6 or more years old. Bacteriophages are viruses that attack bacteria. A lot of people have noticed that when they swim in the ocean for a prolonged period of time, there acne heals miraculously. I noticed it too, but never thought much of it. I thought maybe it was the sun. Apparently every drop of ocean water contains millions of bacteriophages and types of bacteriophages (because they are so small). I just want to discuss again with people on this forum ways to make this practical because obviously a lot of us don't live 10 mins from the ocean or are able to swim greater than 2 hours a day.(I'm just making a guess on how often you would need to submerge your body in the ocean to treat all acne). There is a company in the Republic of Georgia (very far away, i know) that personalizes bacteriophages for any bacteria type infections in a cream. They call it phage therapy. There was also a doctor named Keith T. Holland i believe that was working on developing phage therapy in the United States. I'm not entirely sure what happened to that, or if its still in progress because it has been almost 8 years. He possibly didn't have sufficient funds.

I would also like to say that I am fully aware that harnessing bacteriophages in a cream would not be a cure, only a topical treatment. But if it is a treatment that clears acne nonetheless I will use it until I die.

So my question is: does anyone have any possible suggestions into how we can harness bacteriophages without waiting for FDA approval or waiting on some company to produce it. Everything points to this being 100% foolproof in terms of treating acne and it makes total sense.

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Thanks for the links, I will definitely try to contribute to that discussion. As for the first link, that phage kit is specifically for E. coli. I think I would need a strain that directly fights acne bacteria. It said the type of pages were t4 and t4r. I wonder if u can order an acne bacteria sample online.

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I haven't posted on these forums in forever, but this topic caught my eye because having worked with/read about bacteriophages for almost two years, I know quite a lot about them.

I think the most important thing to remember in this discussion is that bacteriophages are extremely specific. Phages that attack E. coli, like those you can buy from Carolina, will do absolutely nothing in terms of killing P. acnes. While it is certainly true that there are tons of phages in the oceans, it is very likely that those phages will not kill P. acnes either. Any ocean-related improvements in your skin are probably more chemical (eg salt concentrations) than biological (phages).

Nonetheless, the right phages do have promise for treating acne. If they can establish residence in your body (basically, avoiding being totally removed by the immune system), you wouldn't necessarily need to constantly re-apply a phage preparation (unlike other chemical-based topicals like BP) because phages are self-replicating and increase their own numbers just by killing bacteria.

The logistics are a bit trickier. As you mentioned, the FDA is a big hurdle to phage treatment (a recent and readable overview of phage therapy that I would really recommend here discusses this issue) because the current regulatory climate is not favorable to phages. While you can buy P. acnes bacterial samples online, and although the process of isolating phages is not particularly difficult if you know what you're doing, it's very unlikely to work unless you have access to a lab, simply because of contamination. It wouldn't surprise me, in the future, to be able to send your own bacterial samples to a company that finds phages to treat them, but to my knowledge, nothing like that exists now. For now, it seems like a very promising idea that is a few years away from being realized.

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I haven't posted on these forums in forever, but this topic caught my eye because having worked with/read about bacteriophages for almost two years, I know quite a lot about them.

I think the most important thing to remember in this discussion is that bacteriophages are extremely specific. Phages that attack E. coli, like those you can buy from Carolina, will do absolutely nothing in terms of killing P. acnes. While it is certainly true that there are tons of phages in the oceans, it is very likely that those phages will not kill P. acnes either. Any ocean-related improvements in your skin are probably more chemical (eg salt concentrations) than biological (phages).

Nonetheless, the right phages do have promise for treating acne. If they can establish residence in your body (basically, avoiding being totally removed by the immune system), you wouldn't necessarily need to constantly re-apply a phage preparation (unlike other chemical-based topicals like BP) because phages are self-replicating and increase their own numbers just by killing bacteria.

The logistics are a bit trickier. As you mentioned, the FDA is a big hurdle to phage treatment (a recent and readable overview of phage therapy that I would really recommend here discusses this issue) because the current regulatory climate is not favorable to phages. While you can buy P. acnes bacterial samples online, and although the process of isolating phages is not particularly difficult if you know what you're doing, it's very unlikely to work unless you have access to a lab, simply because of contamination. It wouldn't surprise me, in the future, to be able to send your own bacterial samples to a company that finds phages to treat them, but to my knowledge, nothing like that exists now. For now, it seems like a very promising idea that is a few years away from being realized.

What is the difference between probiotics and bacteriophage?

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Bacteriophages are viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Probiotics are harmless bacteria that are supposed to help your health by competing with harmful bacteria and making your internal environment less hospitable for their growth.

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Bacteriophages are viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Probiotics are harmless bacteria that are supposed to help your health by competing with harmful bacteria and making your internal environment less hospitable for their growth.

So the treatment is external right?

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Bacteriophages are viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Probiotics are harmless bacteria that are supposed to help your health by competing with harmful bacteria and making your internal environment less hospitable for their growth.

So the treatment is external right?

It would be, yeah.

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Bacteriophages are viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Probiotics are harmless bacteria that are supposed to help your health by competing with harmful bacteria and making your internal environment less hospitable for their growth.

So the treatment is external right?

It would be, yeah.

So is there any cream or anything in Europe that uses Bacteriophages. Any advancement made regarding bacteriophages anywhere?

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I haven't heard any progress on bacteriophages for acne since about 2004. I think someone in the UK (maybe Leeds University) announced great potenial for bacteriophages in 2004, but I've been waiting ever since...

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Investigation of the human microbiome has revealed diverse and complex microbial communities at distinct anatomic sites. The microbiome of the human sebaceous follicle provides a tractable model in which to study its dominant bacterial inhabitant, Propionibacterium acnes, which is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of the human disease acne. To explore the diversity of the bacteriophages that infect P. acnes, 11 P. acnes phages were isolated from the sebaceous follicles of donors with healthy skin or acne and their genomes were sequenced. Comparative genomic analysis of the P. acnes phage population, which spans a 30-year temporal period and a broad geographic range, reveals striking similarity in terms of genome length, percent GC content, nucleotide identity (>85%), and gene content. This was unexpected, given the far-ranging diversity observed in virtually all other phage populations. Although the P. acnesphages display a broad host range against clinical isolates of P. acnes, two bacterial isolates were resistant to many of these phages. Moreover, the patterns of phage resistance correlate closely with the presence of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat elements in the bacteria that target a specific subset of phages, conferring a system of prokaryotic innate immunity. The limited diversity of the P. acnes bacteriophages, which may relate to the unique evolutionary constraints imposed by the lipid-rich anaerobic environment in which their bacterial hosts reside, points to the potential utility of phage-based antimicrobial therapy for acne.

IMPORTANCEPropionibacterium acnes is a dominant member of the skin microflora and has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of acne; however, little is known about the bacteriophages that coexist with and infect this bacterium. Here we present the novel genome sequences of 11 P. acnes phages, thereby substantially increasing the amount of available genomic information about this phage population. Surprisingly, we find that, unlike other well-studied bacteriophages, P. acnes phages are highly homogeneous and show a striking lack of genetic diversity, which is perhaps related to their unique and restricted habitat. They also share a broad ability to kill clinical isolates of P. acnes; phage resistance is not prevalent, but when detected, it appears to be conferred by chromosomally encoded immunity elements within the host genome. We believe that these phages display numerous features that would make them ideal candidates for the development of a phage-based therapy for acne.

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life.” - John Lennon

"The cure to your acne problem might be right under your nose … or, in fact, on any part of your face. Scientists have found that common, benign viruses living on your skin could be natural and effective killers of the bacteria that cause the most common kind of acne.

These viruses are a type called bacteriophages, meaning they feed only on bacteria and not on human cells, unlike viruses such as HIV or poliovirus.

Because certain bacteriophages naturally seek out the very bacteria that cause acne — and live in the same environment, co-evolving with them — they could be better at controlling acne than the foreign concoctions now in use."

Rest of the article is very interesting, because I know I always stop and question, 'with the advancement of modern science, how is that NO one seems to be finding a viable solution to acne when it plagues SO many people?!"

Well, it looks like they are working on it, and now we can all wait and see. I personally think in the very near future, acne will be very easy to get under control. & hopefully acne scarring can be the next thing they find a really advanced solution for!

I found this great article! It seems like p.acnes is a major culprit of acne, and they found a way to get rid of it for good.

I hope this treatment comes out soon so I can try it.

Acne, the scourge of young adulthood, may soon go the way of the dodo—at least, that is what those plagued with pimples hope will be the case now that scientists have discovered a group of viruses that targets and kills bacteria that cause acne. Current antibiotics used to treat acne cannot target specific types of bacteria and therefore have the unintended consequence of killing "good" bacteria, like the types that live in our gut, as well as the acne-causing strain. The viruses, however, are naturally occurring and attack only specific bacteria, in this case, Propionibacterium acnes, a bacterium common in acne pustules.

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I found this great article! It seems like p.acnes is a major culprit of acne, and they found a way to get rid of it for good.

I hope this treatment comes out soon so I can try it.

Acne, the scourge of young adulthood, may soon go the way of the dodo—at least, that is what those plagued with pimples hope will be the case now that scientists have discovered a group of viruses that targets and kills bacteria that cause acne. Current antibiotics used to treat acne cannot target specific types of bacteria and therefore have the unintended consequence of killing "good" bacteria, like the types that live in our gut, as well as the acne-causing strain. The viruses, however, are naturally occurring and attack only specific bacteria, in this case, Propionibacterium acnes, a bacterium common in acne pustules.

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"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life.” - John Lennon